By Nicole Demouth
Vote Northup, meet the parents
I hate to make this column personal during election week, but I can’t let something so ridiculous and immature slide without telling nearly the entire school. Let’s be honest; liberals like to call names. It’s about the best they can do. In fact, it’s the next best thing to actually answering a question or using rational thought. I know that it sounds sad, but honestly, I don’t mind listening to a liberal’s argument when it’s directed toward a moderate like myself. However, when mudslinging and name-calling is directed towards my father, or any member of my family, it’s a whole other story.
Brian Yates, a well-spoken and well-written individual and author, printed an article about Saddam Hussein and how he is a threat to our nation. I strongly agree with his argument, and made that clear in the feedback section of our newspaper’s website. I believe that Hussein is a violent individual who has no respect for our people. That’s an honest opinion, no?
One of The Louisville Cardinal’s writers didn’t think so. He suggested Mr. Yates and I might tie the knot and live in a conservative safe haven with a nice little picket fence. A patriotic place where the sun shines on our endless bags of money and fighter jets fly overhead. Where life is filled with healthy and forthright talks of the Boston Tea Party, segregation, and God.
His comment wasn’t in such detail, but it’s what I pictured when I read his post. It was the first good laugh I had all week. Then I read further and it said that I “can only speak my daddy’s shit brain thoughts,” which on one hand is funny, because my father is a lifelong Democrat and proud of it.
On the other hand, the writer suggested that my father has shit for brains, and that’s not funny at all. Where I come from, you don’t say things like that when you don’t know who it is that you’re talking about. I’d be willing to bet that quite a few people have that mentality when it comes to their family.
I’ll be sending last week’s paper to a man who is impressed that I think for myself and write (whether others agree or not) for a wide audience. This is the same man who worked hard all of his life, from childhood to adulthood, receiving nothing for free and accepting nothing less than the best for his family, especially his children. This man will read my article and the feedback that followed after a 12-hour day at work and laugh at what the poster wrote about his beliefs and intelligence. Then he’ll put it down, think wisely, and respond. This man is my father. Now, in his younger days, he would have knocked your teeth out.
My mother is also a Democrat, along with almost my entire family. We come from a city that has long been a Democratic stronghold, and in order to survive, you vote Democrat. Even within the family, there are arguments about which Democrat to vote for!
It might come as a surprise to hear that my mother was a war protestor; the very same people I disagree with in some of my articles. She was a beautiful interior decorating student who spent her time in Boston, Massachusetts; state territory of the Kennedy family, who influenced quite a bit of my childhood. I helped campaign with her for Albany mayor Jerry Jennings, a Democrat, because I believed he was the right man for the job.
The point is that I’ve had my share of influences, and I’ve learned to differentiate, not vote across the board without a thought. What is right for some cities or states is not necessarily right for others. A young Democrat in Congress is not what we need right now for Louisville. We need the experience and the connections that Anne Northup can provide. Louisville needs to be built up and filled in, providing a concrete living, working, and learning place for our citizens; only then can we truly provide more for the good people of Louisville.
